St. Joseph's Health System

Mission St. Joseph’s Health System is a sprawling complex of buildings located in the mountains of Asheville, NC. Consisting of two separate entities (St. Joseph’s Hospital and Memorial Mission Hospital), the facility can cure just about any ailment known to humankind except for one: grease.

The two separate campuses, located across the street from one another, sport over 850 beds for patients. Over 7,000 meals per day are prepared between the two facilities, generating a tremendous amount of grease & oils.

To combat the nagging problems caused by greasy kitchen effluent, large passive traps were installed. According to Lloyd Garon, Facility Plumbing Supervisor, these simply did not work. The facility suffered numerous blockages and backups as a result of grease. We spent a great deal of time cleaning out our passive traps, probably four to five hours at a time. It was a terrible situation with the odors and the mess, and we still had to jet out our lines frequently. Morgan McWhirter, Facility Services Supervisor, estimates that they had to jet out their lines once every two to three weeks.

An attempt was made to solve the situation using enzymes & chemicals, also to no avail. According to McWhirter, Enzymes & chemicals were not a good option. We’re a constant flow system. We don’t shut down at night like McDonald’s. The enzymes never had a chance to grow and do their job. The sewer department was skeptical as well; these measures simply took the grease out of our operation and sent them down the sewer line.

To add insult to this injury, the sewer department began pushing the hospital to do something about its grease problem. Asheville has an active pretreatment program with strict limits, and a facility the size of Mission St. Joseph’s Health System became a natural target. A solution was needed.

Around mid-2000, the facilities department at the hospital became familiar with the Big Dipper. In July of 2000, a Big Dipper W-1000-AST was installed into the Mission Memorial Hospital campus, replacing the passive traps. The results?

In the beginning, I was the biggest critic of the Big Dipper system. I didn’t think it would work. I was wrong, says Garon. The system is removing up to 30 gallons of grease every two weeks. They have not had to jet out their lines since installation, and maintenance has decreased dramatically. We spend maybe an hour a week performing routine maintenance on the units. In October 2000, a second W-1000-AST was installed in the St. Joseph’s Hospital campus across the street.

It was also a cost effective solution as well. Says McWhirter, I was spending approximately $16,000 to $18,000 a year on chemicals alone, let alone the costs associated with rooting out our sewer lines. Both Big Dipper systems will have paid for themselves in a year. They have worked out great.

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